I think that if you view an internet 50+ cycling forum as a private club or personal support group or if you try to use it in place of having a social life, you will be sorely disappointed. It's not the fault of a bad forum or bad people on it, just that a semi-anonymous group of people with very loosely-related interests is not a good means of achieving those ends.
There's a lot of content here on BikeForums. Some of the forums are of interest to me, some are not. Of those forums that are interesting to me, some of the threads are of interest, some are not. I scan through and I read and respond to what is of interest. A 50+ group encompasses a lot of ground, say maybe a 30-year period of age, and all kinds of cycling activities, so we don't automatically have a lot of common ground. And if you post something that is of no great interest to me, that's okay, I generally won't worry about it and I'll scan on down to the next post.
When I was in college, one of my friends in the dormitory just seemed to take it as a matter of course that a fellow was going to get into a fist-fight every few weeks. And I guess he did, too. But, then, I was the same age as he was, and I hadn't been in a fist-fight since 3rd grade. I think it works kind of like that with arguments, too. It takes two people to argue. If you find yourself continually getting involved in arguments, it could be that everyone else in the world is argumentative, or it could be that you're part of the problem. And if that's the case, complaining probably won't fix it, either. Just live and let live, and if people disagree with you, that's okay.
Meanwhile, I'll scan on down through the 50+ topics here, and visit the Road and Long Distance and Utility and General and Texas Forums and see what I can glean from them.
Oh, here's an Argument video for you all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkzjBfTDH20